The president of the association, Otunba Frank Ogunojemite in white and red head scarf flanked by some members of his association on bother sides.
Story by Dili Utomi.
The Africa Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics Of Nigeria (APFFLON) has advocated the training of freight forwarders on the use of the new Customs portal called the B’Odogwu for the clearance of goods in Nigeria.
The call was made by the president of the freight forwarders advocacy group, Otunba Frank Ogunojemite, Thursday at the inauguration of the executive committee members of three chapters of the association. The chapters that have their executive committee members sworn in at the headquarters of the association are the Tin Can Island Port Command chapter, the Murtala Mohammed Airport Command chapter and the Kirikiri Lighter Terminal Command chapter.
The president of the association while making his speech at the occasion said that APFFLON is an association that is geared towards coordinating all freight forwarders within the African continent into a strong group to advocate for all things appropriate and in tandem with the tenets of freight forwarding practise, including the right of the freight forwarders. He noted that they already have a West African area coordinator in the person of Segun Oluseoye.
The swearing in ceremony
The members of the different executive committee simultaneously took their oaths of office from the general secretary of the association, Barrister Segun Balogun. The new executive committee members for the Murtala Mohammed Airport Command chapter include Olorunfunmi Quadri as chairman, Busayo Okpara as vice chairman, Anselm Eke as secretary, Dare Olorunshaki as treasurer, Olatunji Adegoroye as financial secretary, Abdulrazak Giwa as public relations officer 1, Onochie Chiabua as customs relations officer 1 and Sunday Okunola Folabi as customs relations officer 2.
The Tin Can Island Port Command chapter has the following persons sworn in as their new executive committee members, Akeem Adebayo Ayobiojo as chairman, Jubril Usman as vice chairman, Charles Nwachukwu as secretary, Anselm Peter Obi as assistant secretary, Peter Mbamaonyeukwu as treasurer, Sunday Aderinoye as assistant treasurer, Rabiu Taoreed as financial secretary, Michael Osuya as assistant financial secretary, Clinton Okoro as public relations officer 1 and Rasheed Tijani as the customs relations officer.
For the Kirikiri Lighter Terminal Command chapter which is an entirely new one at that, the new executive committee members include Haruna Isyaku Aliyu as chairman, Abdul Yaya as secretary, Abdul Majeed as financial secretary, Abubakar as the Customs relations officer, and Omotayo Rufus as the welfare officer.
Otunba Ogunojemite also used the occasion to bring to the attention of the public the fact of the failure of the server at the Ports Terminal Multi-Services Limited Command for about a week now and the inefficiency of the network provider, Web Fontaine. He asks that freight forwarders should not be made to continually bear the cost of the inefficiency of the network provider and that apologies for the failure of the server is not enough, but that costs of cargo demurrage as a direct result of this inefficiency should be born by the network provider, the terminal operators and the shipping companies.
He fielded questions from journalists at the event and hopes that when the amendment of the Shippers’ Council’s act is complete that it would have addressed the matter of who bears the cost of certain inefficiencies. Otunba Ogunojemite says that the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) is an agency that they advocate for, but that the Council is right now in a state of imbecility and not really functioning. He suggests that the minister for Marine and Blue Economy make the decision of merging the council with NSC as a department in the Ministry.
On the correlation between the low cargo throughput being witnessed into the country and the very large amount of revenue being declared by the Nigeria Customs Service, Chief Ogunojemite said that he suspects that the reducing value of the naira and the issue of the policy of 846 which hands a discretionary power to the Customs in vehicle clearance may be the reasons behind the higher amount being declared as revenue collected now.
For advertisement and more information, please contact us on 08027590195, 08035721540 or email us at [email protected] or send us messages on x @dn_utomi or on Instagram @utomidili.
